Bakjur was a

Circassia Circassia ( ), also known as Zichia, was a country and a historical region in . It spanned the western coastal portions of the North Caucasus, along the northeastern shore of the Black Sea. Circassia was conquered by the Russian Empire during ...

n military slave (''

mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

'' or ''

ghulam Ghulam (, ) is an Arabic word meaning ''servant'', ''assistant'', ''boy'', or ''youth''. It is used to describe young servants in Jannah. It is also used to refer to slave-soldiers in the Abbasid, Ottoman, Safavid and to a lesser extent, Mughal e ...

'') who served the

Hamdanids The Hamdanid dynasty () was a Islam, Shia Muslim Arab dynasty that ruled modern day Northern Mesopotamia and Bilad al-Sham , Syria (890–1004). They descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib tribe of Mesopotamia and Arabia. History Origin ...

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

and later the

Fatimids The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty, Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. He seized control of Aleppo in 975 and governed it until 977, when the rightful Hamdanid ruler,

Sa'd al-Dawla Abu 'l-Ma'ali Sharif, more commonly known by his honorific title, Sa'd al-Dawla (), was the second ruler of the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo, encompassing most of northern Syria. The son of the emirate's founder, Sayf al-Dawla, he inherited the t ...

, regained it. Given the governorship of

Homs Homs ( ; ), known in pre-Islamic times as Emesa ( ; ), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level, above sea level and is located north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is ...

, in 983 he went over to the Fatimids and launched an attack on Aleppo, which was defeated through the intervention of

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

troops. Bakjur then became governor of

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

for the Fatimids until 988. He made a last attempt to capture Aleppo in 991, which again was defeated thanks to Byzantine assistance. Bakjur was captured by Sa'd al-Dawla and executed.

Life

Bakjur was a

n military slave (''

'' or ''

''), originally recruited by the

. By 969, he had risen to be the deputy of

Qarquya Qarghuyah or Qarquya was an important Arab administrator in the Hamdanid Dynasty under Sayf al-Dawla, who would go on to control Aleppo himself and even sign the Treaty of Safar with the Byzantine Empire as the ruling emir of Aleppo. On January 7 ...

, the powerful chamberlain (''

hajib Hajib or hadjib (, ) was a court official, equivalent to a chamberlain, in the early Muslim world, which evolved to fulfil various functions, often serving as chief ministers or enjoying dictatorial powers. The post appeared under the Umayyad Ca ...

'') of the emir

Sayf al-Dawla ʿAlī ibn ʾAbū'l-Hayjāʾ ʿAbdallāh ibn Ḥamdān ibn Ḥamdūn ibn al-Ḥārith al-Taghlibī (, 22 June 916 – 8 February 967), more commonly known simply by his honorific of Sayf al-Dawla (, ), was the founder of the Emirate of Aleppo, ...

. After the latter's death in 967 Qarquya took over rule of Aleppo, effectively dispossessing Sayf al-Dawla's son

, who after long wanderings managed to find refuge in

In 975, Bakjur deposed and imprisoned Qarquya and seized Aleppo for himself. This encouraged Sa'd al-Dawla to attempt to recover his father's capital. Aided by some of his father's ''ghulams'', and, crucially, the powerful

Banu Kilab The Banu Kilab () was an Arab tribe in the western Najd (central Arabian Peninsula, Arabia) where they controlled the horse-breeding pastures of Dariyya from the mid-6th century until at least the mid-9th century. The tribe was divided into ten br ...

tribe living around Aleppo, Sa'd al-Dawla besieged Aleppo and captured it. Qarquya was set free and again entrusted with the affairs of state until his death a few years later, while Bakjur was given the governorship of Homs in compensation. Sa'd al-Dawla had recovered control of his emirate, but his position was precarious: Aleppo was situated between two great powers, the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

and the

Fatimid Caliphate The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia, i ...

, who vied for control over the Hamdanid emirate, and northern

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

with it. Since 969, Aleppo had been

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

to the Byzantines, a fact Sa'd al-Dawla resented. On the other hand, he was dependent on Byzantine aid to prevent the Fatimid caliph,

al-Aziz Abu Mansur Nizar (; 10 May 955 – 14 October 996), known by his regnal name as al-Aziz Billah (), was the fifth caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, from 975 to his death in 996. His reign saw the capture of Damascus and the Fatimid expansion into ...

, from annexing the emirate outright. As a result, his policy vacillated between the two powers. In 983, Bakjur quarrelled with Sa'd al-Dawla and went over to the Fatimids. The Fatimids supplied him with an army, with which he attacked Aleppo in September. Sa'd al-Dawla was forced to appeal to the Byzantine emperor

Basil II Basil II Porphyrogenitus (; 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer (, ), was the senior Byzantine emperor from 976 to 1025. He and his brother Constantine VIII were crowned before their father Romanos II died in 963, but t ...

for help, and the Fatimid siege was raised by an army under

Bardas Phokas the Younger Bardas Phokas (or Phocas) () (–13 April 989) was a Byzantine general who took a conspicuous part in three revolts for and against the ruling Macedonian dynasty. First rebellion Bardas was a scion of the Phokas family, the most prominent By ...

. The Byzantines then proceeded to sack Homs in October. The city was returned to Hamdanid control, while Bakjur fled to Fatimid territory. Bakjur now appealed to al-Aziz, and requested the governorship of

. This request produced a rift between the Caliph al-Aziz, who favoured expansion in Syria and saw in Bakjur a tool for capturing Aleppo, and his long-serving

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

Yaqub ibn Killis Abu'l-Faraj Ya'qub ibn Yusuf ibn Killis (, ), (c. 930 in Baghdad – 991), commonly known simply by his patronymic surname as Ibn Killis, was a high-ranking official of the Ikhshidids who went on to serve as vizier under the Fatimids from 979 unti ...

, who was opposed to this policy and moreover wished to maintain the incumbent governor, Baltakin, a protégé of his. Powerful interests within the city, especially the Jews under Manasseh ibn al-Qazzaz, and the Turkish military establishment also opposed Bakjur's appointment due to his relation with the local Arab tribal leaders, particularly the

Banu Tayy The Tayy (/ALA-LC: ''Ṭayyi’''; Musnad: 𐩷𐩺), also known as Ṭayyi, Tayyaye, or Taiyaye, are a large and ancient Arab tribe, among whose descendants today are the tribes of Bani Sakher and Shammar. The '' nisba'' (patronymic) of Tayy i ...

under Mufarrij ibn Daghfal. In the end, al-Aziz overrode any objections and ordered the city handed over to Bakjur (December 983). Bakjur's tenure in Damascus was troubled due to the opposition he faced, and the brutal measures with which he repressed it made him unpopular. Already soon after his assumption of the governorship he executed one of Manasseh ibn al-Qazzaz's Jewish supporters, while in 987 a plot, sponsored by Ibn Killis, to unseat him resulted in a wholesale slaughter of Bakjur's opponents in the city. Finally, in spring 988 Ibn Killis persuaded al-Aziz to depose Bakjur, and dispatched an army under Munis against Damascus. Bakjur and his Arab ally Mufarrij skirmished with Munis' Fatimid troops and their Arab tribal allies for about two months, before Munis scored a major success at a battle in Dariya, south-east of Damascus. Disheartened, Bakjur obtained a promise of pardon and free passage, and left for

Raqqa Raqqa (, also , Kurdish language, Kurdish: ''Reqa'') is a city in Syria on the North bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine city and b ...

on the

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

on 29 October. He was replaced by another of the protégés of Ibn Killis, the ''ghulam''

Ya'qub al-Siqlabi Yakub, Yaqub, Yaqoob, Yaqoub, Yacoub, Yakoub or Yaâkub (, also transliterated in other ways; ''Yakob,'' as commonly westernized) is a male given name. It is the Arabic version of Jacob and James. The Arabic form ''Ya'qūb/Ya'kūb'' may be direct ...

. From Raqqa, he continued to plot against Sa'd al-Dawla, hoping to regain control of Aleppo. Sa'd al-Dawla, again with Byzantine assistance, was able to defeat and capture Bakjur at Na'ura east of Aleppo in April 991, and later had him executed.

References

Sources

* * * * {{cite book, last=Stevenson, first=William B., title=The Cambridge Medieval History, Volume V: Contest of Empire and Papacy , url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgemedieva05buryuoft, editor-last=Bury, editor-first=John Bagnell, location=New York, publisher=The Macmillan Company, year=1926, chapter=Chapter VI. Islam in Syria and Egypt (750–1100), page
242
��264 991 deaths Circassian Mamluks Fatimid governors of Damascus Ghilman People from the Hamdanid emirate of Aleppo Military history of Homs People of the Arab–Byzantine wars Executed military personnel Year of birth unknown Defectors 10th-century people from the Fatimid Caliphate Slaves from the Fatimid Caliphate Fatimid ghilman Military history of Aleppo